Network vendors Huawei and Nokia Solutions and Networks (NSN) have announced the signing of a cross-license agreement for an Operations Support System Interoperability Initiative (OSSii).
The objective of OSSii, announced by NSN, Huawei and Ericsson in May 2013, is to provide a means of developing, testing and maintaining interoperability of OSS APIs supporting multi-vendor integration.
The announcement asserts that:
Operators stand to benefit from the OSSii integration model. Time to market will be shortened and costs will reduce and common problems associated with current integration solutions will be significantly alleviated.
Standards have been developed in the past to encourage OSS interoperability, such as OSS/J and TMF814. Where such standards have struggled is in getting sufficient critical mass of adoption by interested parties.
The approach of OSSii is different. It does not attempt to specify a standard that all parties adopt; Instead it is a framework to open up existing interfaces (standards-based or proprietary) to allow testing for interoperability.
When the academic exercise of drafting and agreeing integration standards fails to deliver usable results, as it often does, the approach of OSSii is pleasingly pragmatic.
OSSii shows us the stated objectives of some major players. News on OSSii has been pretty quiet since the initial announcement, so this progress is a welcome indicator that things are beginning to move off paper and in to the real-world.
You can read Huawei’s full press release here.